The arrest of State District Judge Ken Anderson for playing hide-the-evidence in Michael Morton's murder case was ordered by a judge clearly outraged and repulsed by Anderson's behavior.

Wrote Judge Louis Sturns, presiding over a special court of inquiry in the case (hat tip to Grits for posting the transcript):

"This court cannot think of a more intentionally harmful act than a prosecutor's conscious choice to hide mitigating evidence so as to create an uneven playing field for a defendant facing a murder charge and life sentence."

Anderson was DA in Williamson County and prosecuted Morton for his wife's beating murder, getting him a life sentence. Sturns essentially called Anderson a liar for how he concealed evidence -- and a slimy, stubborn liar at that. As for objections that the statutes of limitations could save Anderson's hide on this, Sturns seemed to say, "Maybe, but Anderson has to at least be called out for his despicable behavior." Amen.

However that ends up for Anderson, he is exposed for what he is -- a guy who wanted an expedient conviction, never mind that he was doing violence to constitutional rights and letting the real killer get away.

One of the more nauseating chapters revealed by the court of inquiry involved Anderson's conniving to come up with a fallback plan if Morton ever found out that his son saw a stranger beat his mom to death. The 3-year-old told grandma that a "monster hurt mommy," but Anderson kept that from the defense.

On Tuesday, the court also heard from one of Anderson’s former assistant prosecutors, Kimberly Gardner, who said not only was Anderson aware of the “monster transcript,” but he discussed strategies for dealing with Eric’s testimony should it come up during Morton’s trial.

Gardner recalled an informal meeting at the district attorney’s office with Anderson and Mike Davis, an assistant prosecutor in Morton’s case. “Ken was talking about the Morton case. He said, and I remember him leaning up against a door jamb … with his arms crossed, and he said, ‘The kid thinks a monster killed his mother,’ ” Gardner said.

Gardner also read from an affidavit, which she had provided to Morton’s lawyers shortly after he was released from prison, in which she recalled Anderson and Davis discussing a possible rebuttal argument — that Morton was the killer but wore his scuba diving wetsuit to hide his identity and portray himself as the monster that Eric saw.

That would also explain why police could not find any blood-covered clothes belonging to Morton, Gardner recalled, because a wetsuit could be easily washed off afterward.

Does that not make you want to throw up? These are people sworn to uphold the law and pursue justice. It's hard to accept that more than one prosecutor was in on the scam, but only Anderson has been taken to task.

One thing is nagging at me, though -- how charges against Anderson might affect the outcome of two huge justice reforms that the Legislature is working on. I wonder if some lawmakers might say, "See, the system is policing itself. We don't need any more laws cluttering up the books."

Tomorrow the House is scheduled to take up HB 166, which would create the Timothy Cole Commission to do post-mortems on documented cases of miscarriage of justice -- like Morton's -- to guide further improvements in the system. And the House is about to take up SB 1611, also known as the Michael Morton Act, which spells out the evidence and procedures to be followed for a defendant to access exculpatory evidence.

The Morton case and testimony from others like him this session cry out for clearer, tougher rules. Rogue prosecutors need to get the message. The vast majority of prosecutors are honest public servants. But as Rep. Jeff Leach pointed out in an op-ed in our newspaper today, the state of Texas has paid out more than $65 million in compensation to wrongfully convicted men. Some of that was due to outdated or sloppy police work. But some stemmed from corruption, as with Morton and the prosecution of Anthony Graves in Central Texas.

Even Christopher Scott, now a Carrollton resident, testified last month that his case went forward even though prosecutors had no physical evidence against him and no reason to arrest him. A setup if there ever was one, but no one has been called to account for it. Watch Scott's telling of the horror of this false accusation.

It doesn't work to suggest that the system is fixing itself. Look at Morton's case. It took 25 years, Texas-based pro-bono lawyers and the Innocence Commission of New York -- Barry Scheck's group -- to get him out of prison. They were going up against Anderson's formidable successor as DA, John Bradley, who took up the fight to keep physical evidence away from Morton for DNA testing.

Then came Phase II, the court of inquiry, which took a Texas Supreme Court order and special judge and prosecutor. Not far behind is a State Bar of Texas lawsuit against Anderson.

As for reforms, it has taken two state senators and their top staffers, plus pro-bono lobbyists like State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff to get SB 1611 negotiated to where it could get through the Senate. It's also taken testimony from a parade of exonerees themselves. Next up for SB 1611, the House, probably next week in committee.